L/R: Licensed by Royalty Episode 11 - Vicious Masquerade

We’re getting somewhere here. Going to a place where all series have gone before, the continued build up to series finale fraught with intensity and uncertainty.

The show nails it from start to finish with this episode. Without much muss or fuss, we know something is up when Rowe is assigned to guard Noelle and Jack is nowhere to be found. Seeing the dynamic of a solo operation with one of L/R is welcome, especially at this juncture. Rowe does the best he can, yet he is bested by a mysterious Jude McManus, a new DTI hire who for some reason kinda sounds like Jack (30 years down the line thanks to smoking) and also looks like him. There’s a nice scene where Rowe gets routed by his means to protect Noelle, and the show delivers a nice guessing game on the whereabouts of Jack. Sure he seems to be Jude, but two similar-looking individuals enliven things up a bit.

There’re also good machinations going on with regards to Mister’s involvement with DTI, where he reveals his true machinations. He wants Noelle to be assassinated during the coronation ceremony, yet it seems like he is trying to pin it on DTI what with having them be Noelle’s bodyguards instead, and doing the dirty deed as well. Unfortunately for them, the DTI CEO is not a stupid man, and turns the tables so that L/R is the assassin instead. A big reversal it is to be sure, but not unexpected. If the past few weeks are precedent, L/R already has an alternative plan set up and has the wiles to save the day once again. The catharsis in seeing DTI hoisted by its own petard will definitely be more than satisfying.

If there is one big flaw, it is how the strong emotional core resonates with very little build up. I would have liked to see more adventures of Rowe and Jack, highlighting their unity and dynamic. I would have liked to see more of Jack’s past than a picture showed last week and his pouring out to Noelle here. I would have liked to see more of Claire and Rowe together before they consummated their romance (oh yeah, that’s a thing y’know). There are a lot of elements that would’ve had great potential in a longer series, or at least a better handled short series, but… they’re just there.

And while I have hopes for the finale, this show may just be there, when it could’ve been well… elsewhere. However, that’s neither here nor there; we’ve two episodes left after all. While I’ve said it would take three weeks to run through it, I think given how I skipped a week I should at least do the finale in one fell swoop. After all, the series incentivizes me to do so anyway.

N/R Notes by Royalty:

Holy shit have I been mixing them up all this time? J.B. Blanc is Rowe and Freddy Douglas is Jack, not the other way around! ><